Jan Hammer - The First Seven Days

     Seeing that the Jan Hammer/Jerry Goodman album "Like
Children" turned up on this site recently, I was motivated to
push the inclusion of Jan Hammer alone, if only for his brilliant
solo album "The First Seven Days", a concept album based on
the 7 days of creation. When it came out in 1975, I thought then
(and still do) that it's the best multi-keyboard album ever made.
It simply blows all the ot Vangelises and Jarres out of the water,
for several reasons. 1. The compositions are really in a class
with great classical composers. 2. The sounds, he was a great
innovator and designer of synthesizer sounds, and a pioneer in
the use of polyphonic synths and sequencers. 3. Warmth,
something entirely rare in multi-keyboard music, coming from
acoustic piano and violin, but also his use of Oberheim and
Mellotron. To add insult to injury, Hammer also plays drums on
the album, and he's a monster. And the best Mini-Moog player
ever. OK, he made some stinkers later, like Miami Vice, but
nothing as cheesy as Wakeman or Bank's later work, and this
album alone qualifies him for a place on the prog Olympus.
Wondering if anyone else knows this album?

Don't know the album, I'm very interested, big fan of Jan Hammer from his work on early Mahavishnu Orchestra.

BTW IMO you're  unfair on Wakeman who while he has done more than his share of cheesey stuff, is more than a match for most on Moog (check his duelling with Howe on "South Side of the Sky" off "Songs from Tsongas" DVD). And Tony Banks is an ARP man not a Moog player.....

RoyalJelly wrote:      I wasn't referring to their Moog playing especially (or lack of it, in Tony's case), but rather to the dismal quality of some of their catalogue, in terms of compositions & arrangements. But anyone who's seen Hammer play live (I saw the Jan Hammer band several times, as well as the shows with Jeff Beck and DiMeola) knows what an incomparable soloist and performer he is. The first one to wear a strap-on synth like a guitar, and the only time I think it was justifiable, and not just to look cool, cuz he threw his whole body into playing that thing, it was like Hendrix on keys.      By the way, the first cut on the Jan Hammer/Jeff beck live album is a better known version of the 1st cut from The First 7 Days, "Darkness/Earth in Search of a Sun".

No I haven't seen Hammer live, I've only caught the end of a film of the Mahavishnu Orchestra on TV that I can't seem to trace, and Dick Heath has said about plans for releasing some live recordings.
I'm going to hunt down The 1st Seven Days!!

The data base at

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Jan+hammer+and+Da vid+Johnson&btnG=Search&meta =

 

reveals that Jan Hammer,prior to the Miami Vice period, released predominantly or was considerably involved in others' jazz rock albums. Some fairly straight rock albums released by JH by the end of the 70's. There appears to be only a few omissions from that list

Phil wrote: No I haven't seen Hammer live, I've only caught the end of a film of the Mahavishnu Orchestra on TV that I can't seem to trace, and Dick Heath has said about plans for releasing some live recordings. I'm going to hunt down The 1st Seven Days!!

 

There have been several mentions in a respectable UK jazz magazines,i. e Jazzwise, and elsewhere the leader of Mahavishnu Project, Greg Bendian has been quoted, that a live recording made in Philadelphia (?) during the  Inner Mounting Flame period MO, was being mastered (by Bendian with full MO support) - and indeed (if you believe the press) should have been released by May 2005.  When the Trident Sessions album was released it was revealed many other unreleased MO recordings (mostly live) lay in Columbia Records archives.